Instagramming Paris

A couple of weeks ago, we went and spent a long weekend in Paris. 

Thought I had been to France several times before, I had never visited Paris, so needless to say I was pretty excited about the whole thing.

One of the things I really love about living where we do is that it's such a short hop to various places in Europe, this one being one of the closest. We arrived on a wednesday afternoon, and as we weren't exactly sure of our bearings or how best to get to our hotel we took a bus to L'Arc de Triomph, choosing to go the rest of the way on foot. It ended up being considerably further than it looked on the map, and needless to say, my platform boots turned out not to have been the best choice for walking around. But luckily, it was warm and sunny, so we enjoyed the stroll and taking in the local vibe as we made our way there. We must have been looking lost at a couple of points, because friendly locals went out of their way to stop and help us, doing their best to point us in the right direction. 

When we finally found the hotel, which was in Wagram, close to Montmartre, we dropped off our suitcase, did a quick change and then headed out to have a glass of wine outside one of the traditionally styled "bistrots" we had seen along the way.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around and stopping off for a drink here and there, before once again popping back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. 

We got the tube to Montmartre and made the steep climb to the top of the hill to see the breathtaking Sacre Coeur (as seen in the third photo). It was an exhausting climb, and by the mid-point we were both exhausted and gasping for a drink. Luckily for us, there happened to be an Irish pub halfway up, so we stopped off for a while to warm up before braving the remaining steps.

The Sacre Coeur itself was stunning, inside as well as out. Sadly, we weren't able to take any photos while in there, but suffice to say, it was well worth the climb. The view from the top is fantastic too - you can see right across the city.

On the way back down again, it soon became apparent that I had a bit of a problem, as my knee gave way and refused to help me to the bottom! I must have done it in going up there in the first place, but by the time we got back down we were both in a world of pain (I think helping me resulted in a bit of an injury for him, too!). After a bit of a run in with some guys selling friendship bracelets at the bottom (let's just say they were extremely persistent, deliberately separated us and then got aggressive when we didn't want to buy their creations - quite scary, actually!), we hobbled to the tube and headed back to Wagram. We had been intending to stay for longer, but after all that had happened we were exhausted and ready to chill. We found a busy little bistro close to where we were staying, and as we were starving, decided to treat ourselves to dinner and wine. I had a salmon risotto, while he went for the classic steak with peppercorn sauce, all washed down with a bottlle of Chardonnay. It's funny how close people sit at these sorts of places, endless glasses of wine and constant cigarettes in hand. 

After our wine, we decided to call it a night and get in a good night's sleep before the real sight seeing began the next day - but I'll save that one for another post.

The photos I'm posting here were just a few of my favourite  Instagrams from the trip, and actually, none of them were from the first day - I haven't had a chance to get the ones from my camera all edited and uploaded yet, but I'll be sharing some over the next week or so along with posts on days 2, 3 and 4.

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend so far.

Have you been to Paris? If so, what were your favourite bits?

xx